The Ties that bind
by Catness
Summary: Chapter three up. Danny and Mary break up and Sam stops him from getting drunk one night... Then something happens... DS, based just after "Silver star" and rated PG-13, which mostly involves later chapters...
1. Chapter one

AN: This story begins off as DM, but this is a DS story throughout the most part. Yes DM fans, I know, but I wanted to write something while the idea was in my head. So, this is a story that takes place after "Silver star." I'd love to hear any feedback.

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**Ties that bind  
**By Cat  
**Chapter one**

"Are you sure that you want to be doing this?" Danny asked in a quiet voice. Sad thoughts welded themselves into Danny's head and thoughts gathered as to why she might be doing this. Danny knew that he hadn't exactly been the best friend or lover to her, but he hadn't realised that she would consider this. He looked deeply into his eyes and wished that it wasn't true, but the message her eyes was sending back was enough to tell him that it was real.

The pain in his voice was more than Mary had wanted to hear at the moment, with everything going on, but she knew hat what she was doing was the right thing. She gulped and after a moment she looked into Danny's loving eyes with a looked that was trying to say she was sorry. She knew that it was her last chance. He had meant the world to her, and vice-versa in Danny's case. Danny had saved her from her from her father every other weeks and he had saved her from many other dangers as well. His dedication to the red-haired female was immense and Mary's life-long dream was to marry him and grow old- by his side.

Danny had always wanted the same, but he had been confused throughout a good part of his life, not knowing where his thoughts would have taken him without gentle words from Mary. He had run away to the marines at an early age because of confusion and it had also taken him back later on, but he had returned recently. He had changed as well; during the marines he had been in the line of fire and being shot at was a difficult change from normal-day life. He had suffered virtually no wounds, apart from the various cuts, scratches and bruises. He had been lucky, compared to the rest of his unit; who all died. Upon the deaths of his comrades, Danny had sworn to make amends with Mary and follow her lifelong dreams, which he had only recently realised that most of them contained him. Upon his return, he had proposed to Mary, surprising both Mary, himself and close friends in the process.

"Danny," Mary said with an inward thought of backing down on her decision, "I really love you, but seriously. I don't think that it's going to work well between us. Our relationship has gone through some major changes after you came back from the marines, but what's to say that it's not going to go back to normal after a little while? Relationships take time Danny, you can't just come back and ask me to marry you after all that's happened between us, all those times that you've backed out when you've felt that you made the wrong decision." Mary looked away and sighed. "I'm sorry Danny, but I don't want to marry you and then lose something I love about you. I would still like to be your friend though. I'm sorry that it had to end this way…" Mary let the last few sentences hang in the air before kissing Danny on the cheek gently.

Danny nodded gently. "I'm sorry for all the troubled I caused, I never meant for something like this to happen." He said calmly, and with a gentle goodbye, he walked away.

Mary looked at his retreating body for a few moments before letting a tear of sadness roll down her cheek. She gently wiped it away after a moment and looked away as he turned a corner. 'I love you Danny.' She thought before returning to her work.

-! 0 !-

"Are you okay Danny?" Samantha Jane Marquez asked as she walked up behind the man who was, at the moment, sitting at the bar- obviously trying to get drunk. Usually she was quite- what some people may call it- a bitch. But today she felt a little sorry for him, she had heard about his and Mary's break up and viewed it on the surveillance tapes. Sure, Danny had broken up with many of the ladies before and they had dated a few times themselves, but she had never imagined that he would be dumped by his very own best friend.

"Yeah," Danny said quietly as he stared longingly into the drink he had just been served, "fine." Danny fell into a silence and Sam sat on the barstool next to Danny and looked at him for a moment.

"Danny? You are not fine." Sam said bluntly. "Why don't you go home?" She said and tried to hide her concern. It wasn't like her to become so concerned, especially about Danny.

Danny shook his head and said nothing, still staring into his drink.

"Listen Danny," Sam said briefly, "I don't think that it's a very good idea to get hammered when you need to arrive at work, early, the next day, especially when your boss is Ed Deline." She let her concerned smile disappear once she saw the shrug Danny had just given away. 'Wow,' she thought, 'he must really be upset.' Opening her mouth again, she sighed. "Danny, I'm sure that Mary wouldn't want you to be acting like this, she still wants you to be friends right? She wants you to be happy."

Danny sighed and stood up. "Ok." He said as he began to walk.

"There is no way that I'm going to let you drive yourself home, you know that?" Sam said as she walked after him.

_To be continued…_

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AN: It was just an idea I had and there will be another chapter or two coming… I'd love to hear feedback as well… so let me know if you like it or not. 


	2. Chapter two

AN: well, here is another chapter, thankyou for all the reviews and feedback; it's always great to hear from people.

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**Ties that bind  
**By Cat  
**Chapter two**

Sam got out of the car and closed the door, as did Danny. Sam looked up at Danny's relatively small house and made a small comment in the back of her mind. She looked at Danny, who was walking towards the front door. She instinctively followed and stood next to him as he retrieved his keys from Sam. He opened the door and turned to look at Sam, with a brief, but small, smile upon his face- the first Sam had seen from him for a while.

"Would you like to come in for a moment?" He questioned the smaller brunette with an inward smile. "Just for some coffee or something." He assured her and for the next few moments, all he did was look at her quietly for the next few moments, while she made her decision.

Sam smiled gently and her thoughts became rushed. She had once dated him, which had been nothing at the time. But over the course of time that she had worked at the Montecito, she had come to realise that she was wrong to end the small relationship. She had come to terms and realised that she now had feelings for the guy, which wasn't actually an everyday thing for her, she had often refused to date guys, dumped them when they weren't right and was generally an enemy to anyone of the male persuasion.

"Umm, sure!" She said and followed Danny into his house. It was only coffee after all…

Sam looked around as Danny led her into a moderately large living room. The walls of the hallways had photographs- new and old- hanging from the walls, as did the walls of the living room. The living room had a small coffee table and a sofa on either side of it, with a television which was off to one side.

Danny gestured for her to sit down and went to fix coffee for the two of them, leaving Sam to look around the room. She looked over to a wall and observed the photographs for a moment. Sam's eyes wondered across to a particular photo, one of Danny, Mike, Mary and herself. She remembered that Delinda had taken the photo, unaware to the occupants of the shot. It had been taken at one of Mike's barbeques, during which she had only just become good friends with the group Danny had come to know. The group- Ed, Nessa, Mike, Delinda, Danny and Mary- had become like family to her and the Montecito, a home, more of a sanctuary though.

When she had first gone to work at the Montecito, she had promised herself that she'd stay no more than six months in the casino, now it was close to a year that she had lived there. 'Funny how I never keep my promises.' She commented to herself, placing the thought to the back of her brain.

Sam looked up as Danny re-entered the room, handing a steaming cup of coffee to her. "Thankyou." She said gratefully. She blew away the steam and sipped gently before putting it down on the coffee table and looking around the room once more. "They say that pictures are worth a thousand words, but I never found it within myself to keep photographs." She commented to the other occupant of the room.

"Pictures are memories, sometimes if you remember one image, than you can remember most of your life." Danny said, letting his mind wonder into a distance he had not seen for years.

For another hour, the two friends sat in Danny's living room, just talking. Talking about recent events, past experiences and what the both hoped for the future.

"Danny, I," Sam said as she looked at her feet silently, for some reason she wanted to tell him her feelings, she just didn't know how. She wanted to tell Danny about how she felt and came to realise that she really liked him.

"Yes, Sam?" Danny questioned, looking slightly confused; he had never seen her troubled by talking to someone, especially him. They usually shared friendly banter, but this was most unlike her. He hadn't exactly known the brunette for all that long, not as long as he had known Mary, but he could tell that something was up.

Danny and Sam both looked up when the heard the barely inaudible ringing of Sam's phone. Sam clipped the phone off her belt and looked at the screen. "Oh," she said to Danny with a look of remorse, "excuse me, but I have to take this." Sam exited the room and entered the front hallway to take the call.

Danny took a deep sip of coffee and looked around the room, realising that, recently, he hadn't taken a good look at any of the pictures that adorned his walls. 'I need to redecorate,' he mentally commented…

"Umm, Danny?" Sam said as she re-entered the room, clipping the phone back onto her belt. "We're going to have to go. Ed wants us both back at the Montecito; apparently something's happened."

_To be continued…_

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AN: love any feedback. 


	3. Chapter three

AN: Thankyou for all those that reviewed, it's great to hear what you all think.

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**Ties that bind  
**By Cat  
**Chapter three**

Danny and Sam both rushed into the Montecito, Ed walked over to the pair when he saw the two of them enter.

"Where have the two of you been?" Ed said sternly. "Danny, we have what we think is a dice switch, on table twenty seven." He said to his young protégé. "Get the surveillance tapes and go over them." After a nod from Danny, Ed turned to Sam, "go to Nessa, she'll tell you what's going on." With a sigh, he watched as the two employees left him and went about their business.

! 0 !

Danny sighed as he sat at the moderatly busy surveillance room and watched the tapes over and over again. It was a boring job, but someone had to do it.

After a while he began to let his eyes wonder, to Mary. He couldn't understand why she had broken up with him. At first he had assumed it was for the best but, twenty four hours later he was asking himself what he had done wrong. He loved her, or at least he thought he did. Finally Danny dragged his eyes away from her. He decided that if she didn't want him like that then he'd leave her alone.

Danny let his thoughts about work and the potential dice switch consume his brain for the next few moments, until he began to think about Sam. He needed to thank her for what she had done last night, she prevented him from getting hurt. Danny looked at the computer monitors until he spotted her talking to a few clients. He studied her features for a moment and began to think about what had happened the night before.

Danny thought back to what she had said to him. Somehow Danny felt that she had wanted to say more. He wanted to tell her more too. He felt like he had something he owed her. Back when he had first asked her out, he had found her sexy and he had really wanted to 'get her into bed,' as she had put it. But after two dates all he did was want her more. She had dumped him and that had been that. But as she had come to work at the Montecito, he had begun to like her, a lot.

"Danny!" Ed Deline's voice broke through his thoughts.

Danny jumped slightly and turned to look at his boss. "Huh?"

"Have you found anything?" Ed asked with a slight annoyed tone in his voice.

"Um, yeah." Danny replied and continued to show his findings to Ed.

! 0 !

Sam tuned out the conversation of her clients and looked around for a distraction. Her predicament was getting a little boring, but it gave her time to think. She didn't know what had happened last night, but for some reason she had frozen up and she didn't know why. Perhaps it was the best thing, she didn't really know what she was going to say to him, something about her feelings, she assumed. Sam had always turned her feelings away from herself and her life at work, it was never good to have a relationship with a co-worker, especially one with Danny. When they met, she had considered him a skirt-chasing, egotistical guy that was only in it for the sex. But coming to work for the Montecito made her renew her feelings about everything, especially Danny. She didn't know what she wanted right now, she definatly didn't want a relationship though!

_To be continued...

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AN: Hope that you liked it, I look forward to any feedback. But please be constructive with your critiscism...


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